FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 277 



over 1,000,000 acres of mountain slopes. The work 

 of recovery was begun under the laws of i860 and 

 1864, and a revised law, the reboisement act, of 1882. 

 Under this law the state buys and recuperates the 

 land, or else forces communities or private owners 

 to do so with financial aid from the government. 



Since the operation of this law the state has 

 spent in purchases of worn-out lands, in works to 

 check the torrents and in reforesting, nearly ^20,000,- 

 000, not including subventions to communities and 

 private owners. It is estimated that more than 

 ^30,000,000 more will have to be expended before 

 the area which the state possesses or will possess, 

 probably some 800,000 acres in all, will be restored. 



The work of fixation of sand-dunes, which has 

 occupied the attention of foresters in all states 

 bordering the sea-coast, has been prominent in 

 France since the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, especially in the Department of the Gironde, 

 where during the years 1802 to 1864 a round 

 ;^30o,ooo were spent in cooperation between the 

 . state, the municipal corporations, and private own- 

 ers to fix the 250,000 acres of sand-dunes and turn 

 them into pine forest, which now, together with 

 1,500,000 acres of forest planted in its protection 

 during the last century, yields a constant revenue 

 and occupation for the poor population. 



A state forestry school at Nancy educates the 

 officers, and is among the best on the Continent. 



England, in the home country, has had little 



